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<blockquote data-quote="Orius" data-source="post: 6117046" data-attributes="member: 8863">Even if Oerth or Toril had dead cores, and the planet had cooled significantly (and thus less heat from geological activity, though there'd probably still be some from pressure), you'd still have to deal with all the weight that you'd get with 10,000 feet of rock.&nbsp; So unless the world has some kind of exotic subterranean stone with a very high compressive strength, it simply won't be able to hold up all that weight.&nbsp; Maybe a lower gravity world might affect things differently, but you can't drop the gravity too low or it starts to affect human physiology.&nbsp; I'm assuming the typical Earth-like planetary campaign world operates under the same physical laws that Earth itself does more or less.&nbsp; Natural, very strange and unusual worlds like flat earths might operate differently.&nbsp; Note that I'm applying this to natural caverns specifically -- as I said above, Underdark races could have deeper tunnels that are reinforced by magic or superior engineering, and wizards are always violating the rules of nature.&nbsp; I don't want to have too much handwaved with magic either, after all the real world has some pretty damn interesting stuff underground.&nbsp; Also, the Underdark is more three dimensional than what's going on on the surface of the world.&nbsp; An Underdark that goes down only a mile or two should give a DM plenty of space to work with, especially when you're taking into account how far things extend north, south, east, and west, as well as up and down.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Orius, post: 6117046, member: 8863"] Even if Oerth or Toril had dead cores, and the planet had cooled significantly (and thus less heat from geological activity, though there'd probably still be some from pressure), you'd still have to deal with all the weight that you'd get with 10,000 feet of rock. So unless the world has some kind of exotic subterranean stone with a very high compressive strength, it simply won't be able to hold up all that weight. Maybe a lower gravity world might affect things differently, but you can't drop the gravity too low or it starts to affect human physiology. I'm assuming the typical Earth-like planetary campaign world operates under the same physical laws that Earth itself does more or less. Natural, very strange and unusual worlds like flat earths might operate differently. Note that I'm applying this to [I]natural[/I] caverns specifically -- as I said above, Underdark races could have deeper tunnels that are reinforced by magic or superior engineering, and wizards are always violating the rules of nature. I don't want to have too much handwaved with magic either, after all the real world has some pretty damn interesting stuff underground. Also, the Underdark is more three dimensional than what's going on on the surface of the world. An Underdark that goes down only a mile or two should give a DM plenty of space to work with, especially when you're taking into account how far things extend north, south, east, and west, as well as up and down. [/QUOTE]

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